Samsung Galaxy Nexus to be announced October 19th

We've all been aware of the continued partnership between Samsung and Google with regard to the birth of the third Googlephone, following on from the Samsung Nexus S, for some time now. The Nexus Primeor Galaxy Nexus as it has more recently been known, was set to take center-stage alongside the official launch of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest edition of Google's mobile OS.

Unfortunatley, we encountered a slight snag as the Unpacked event at the CTIA conference in San Diego, intended to pose at the platform for the October 11th annoucement, was cancelled by Samsung, apparently out of respect after the death of Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs.

So with the event now turning its back on us, we were left wondering when Google's next 'chosen device' would officially get to show its face. After rumors and speculation we received the word; October 19thwas to be the new date.

Google Q3 profits beat estimates, 190M Androids activated

Larry Page, who not so long ago took over as Google's CEO, handed in the company's Q3 financial results with a big smile on his face. Revenues were up 33% Year-on-Year (YoY) to $9.72 billion.

Of that cool 31% transferred into operating income ($3.06 billion) and 24% ($2.21 billion) went to advertisers. The same numbers for last year's Q3 were 35% ($2.55 billion) and 26% ($1.81 billion).

The number of paid clicks on Google's ads increased 28% YoY and 13% compared to the previous quarter of this year. They were 5% more expensive too, both YoY and consecutively.

Larry Page also boasted on Google+ that there are now 190 million activated Android devices around the world. Last time, that number was 135 million. The Google revenue from mobile devices also grew 2.5 times over the last year.

Google+ (which Page used to do the bragging) has hit 40 million users who have uploaded 3.4 billion photos. Another Google project - Chrome - is doing very well too, breathing down Firefox's neck for second place in the browser market with 200 million users.

If you want more numbers, check out Google's press release and have a look at Page's Google+ posttoo.

Source 1 • Source 2

Sony Ericsson Q3 results: 0 profit, smartphone-only portfolio in 2012

Sony Ericsson is still walking the line of profitability and has crossed it a few times in the last few quarters. The third quarter of 2011 saw a decrease in most of the major stats year-over-year (YoY), but the company did perform better than it did in Q2.

The most interesting figure of the press release is the net income - 0. Income before taxes was €31 million but none of that made it to the company's coffers. Still, the company seems to be recovering from the Japan earthquake which affected its Q2 results quite strongly.

The number of shipped units was down YoY - 9.5 million vs. 10.4 million in Q3 2010, but the sales remained pretty close at €1.586 billion compared to €1.603 billion.

That was mostly due to increased shipments of the Xperia line of smartphones, which compromised 80% of all shipments. This pushed the average selling price up to €166 (up 8% YoY). 22 million Xperia phones have been shipped to date.

Interestingly, Bert Nordberg (president and CEO of Sony Ericsson) said that they will be shifting their entire portfolio towards smartphones in 2012. He didn’t specify an OS, but there are no strong indications for now that Sony Ericsson will be joining the WP7 team (except a canceled prototype from a while back).

You can read the full press release here (PDF) for more details on Sony Ericsson's performance in Q3 of 2011.

Source (PDF)